<p>Good evening everybody, I attend a small liberal arts college (~1300 students) in western Illinois. The town that I live in currently has approximately 10,000 inhabitants. I can walk everywhere in town, but the problem is that there is nothing to do. I don't have a car on campus, and the nearest towns don't have anything either. To find anything to do, I need to travel about an hour away. I also don't feel challenged here, at all. I feel like they accept anybody who wants to attend and the seniors say that it doesn't get any harder.</p>
<p>I feel very trapped here, like there's no way out. I spoke to my mother last night and she was quite critical of my thoughts on the college, I know that I have been here for just under two months, but it doesn't FEEL right. Today, I spoke to my father and he was very understanding. In his words, "I had transferred to just about every community college in the Chicago metropolitan area, sometimes spending only a single semester at a school." He didn't gain even an associates until 2008, but he had experience with transferring so he understood where I was coming from.</p>
<p>Now, here are my statistics. I earned a 29 on my ACT, I had a 4.3 GPA (weighted) in high school. They don't have the unweighted GPA on our transcripts. Here at college, I'm currently running with straight As and I don't expect to get any more than one B this semester. I'm an international studies major, and I don't really intend on changing my major. I took 9 AP exams in high school with scores varying from 3 to 5.</p>
<p>The schools that I've been thoroughly investigating have been the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Indiana University in Bloomington, and the University of Iowa. One of my biggest problems is finances. All of these schools are more expensive (by at least $10,000) than what I'm currently paying. Anything more than I'm currently paying will have to come out of my own pocket, and thus loans. Am I missing any good schools that I could be looking at for international studies?</p>
<p>I intend on giving myself until the end of the year here, but it's never too early to start looking elsewhere. I'm getting "more involved" where I can, but there's not a whole lot to get involved in here considering the size of the school. My father suggested that I come home more often, but I don't want to be home every other weekend. I feel like I'm an adult and should be living away from home. To me, "home" is a modest size town in the Chicagoland area. </p>
<p>What should I do?</p>